The present disclosure is a continuation-in-part from the disclosure which is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,331 of Nov. 7, 1995. In that patent, a powered reciprocating piston connected with the piston rod is set forth. One special note in that disclosure is an arrangement in which the piston rod is reciprocated but does not rotate. Specifically, the rod is reciprocated in linear or axial so that rotation is not needed. The present disclosure sets forth additional structure so that so that two or more such piston powered engines can be connected together to operate as a larger power plant. The device of the identified patent can be built so that scaling up to larger sizes provides for a larger power plant. While this can be done with few technical limits on increased size, there is the practical limit that larger sizes may provide the necessary power with sharp power surges. One of the advantages of a smaller version provided with two, three, or four identical piston and cylinder arrangements is that smoother operation can then be obtained. For smoother operation, multiple units can be operated together. The present disclosure sets forth certain aspects of putting two or more of the single power piston engines together. As an example, the device can have two, three, or four power pistons connected to the same number of reciprocating piston rods, and thereby operate a similar number of compression cylinders or the like.
In assembling two or more of the powered pistons in conjunction with the dedicated, straight, non-rotating piston rods, advantages of scale are achieved with the benefit of a smoother flow with smaller pulsations in a pumping system. As shown in the parent disclosure, a power piston is arranged at one end of a piston rod. A pump cylinder and piston is arranged at the opposite end and represents the load which is placed on the power piston. The pump end provides an output flow which has pressure peaks in it timed with the stroke of the power piston applied to the piston rod. These pulsations in pressure can be smoothed by using a downstream pressure accumulator. By omitting the pressure accumulator, smoothing can also be obtained through the use of two, three, or four pump pistons connected to a common manifold so that the common manifold is able to smooth the many surges. In smoothing the surges, a different and better mode of operation is obtained.
In one aspect of the present disclosure, two cooperative power plants which could otherwise run completely independently of the operation of the other are arranged so that they run together and system control is then obtained. The system control enables the multiple duplicate units to operate together or jointly. When joint operation is achieved, there are certain economies that result from the joint operation and the economies include a reduction in the number of duplicated components. The number of lubrication oil pumps which are used in the system can be reduced. Moreover, the several power plants which would otherwise be independent are harnessed together so that they operate in synchronized relationship. While the specifics of the synchronization can vary, it is important to assure that four such power plants (to pick a specific example) operate together so they are subject to a single control and therefore provide load adaptability as a single unit. While there are advantages to one unit, even more advantages can be obtained by yoking four otherwise independent power plants together so that they operate in unison.
The present disclosure also sets forth a system in which piston operation is timed with respect to a reference event, and the reference is typically operation of a duplicate set of equipment. Using the example of four such units, they can be timed so that the four units provide the requisite power for any load that might be imposed on the system.